Christmas Morning!

Merry Christmas everyone! I thought I would share some pictures from this morning.

He ran in and exclaimed "BIG Melmo!"

Looking at our presents!

Santa brings him a brand new chair, so he sits in Elmo's lap... go figure!

Eating our candy cane

Lincoln Park Zoo

We went to Lincoln Park Zoo with my family to see all the Christmas Lights. The lights were cool :-D Joseph really liked seeing the animals. The jaguar made him squeal with joy! Enjoy some pictures!!!

My Smart Boy

Joseph amazes me with how smart he is. He was sitting in his high chair eating his cereal when he started counting it!!! He would take out a fruit loop one at a time saying "one.... two.... throo (we can't say three yet)" and then he would repeat it. He counted to three, three times! And yes, when he was finished he had 9 fruit loops on his tray. I don't know, maybe this is normal 2 year old behavior, but I was so proud that my boy could count to three!!! He is also learning his colors!! His favorite color is green. He loves to point out green things in his book and say "greee". He has also already learned how Santa is, or as he calls him "anta". We had to cancel our picture with Santa due to illness, but I'm thinking we may try again because Joseph loves him! He has a little toy Santa that he plays with everyday.
The other day mommy learned a good lesson. When your boy runs up to you and says "itty" while pointing outside... take a break from cooking dinner and go to the window. Just because your cat is sleeping in the back does not mean  your neighbor's cat hasn't gotten out and is sitting on your porch.
Other cuteness in the Divelbiss Household... Joseph now dances to Micky Mouse Clubhouse. For those of you who have kids that watch the show, he now does the Hot Dog Dance. He also waves and says hi to all of the characters as they are introduced in the intro. I LOVE IT! Sorry to all of the other moms out there, but I think my boy wins the Cuteness Award for the month :-D

Decorating our tree

We will be spending Christmas in Illinois this year, so we thought it would be a good idea to get us a Christmas Tree. For those of you who have not seen our apartment, there isn't a lot of room. We really didn't want to move out a table or something in order to find room for a Christmas Tree, so we got a 4" table top tree. We had fun decorating it, and Joseph was greatly amused. Here are a few pictures :-D

Putting on an ornament 

Beaming at the tree

Finished Product- Missing the presents of course

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween. Joseph was a Duck this year, and he picked it out all by himself! We were worried he would keep his costume on, but he did great! First, Joseph went to a Halloween Party with some of his friends from church. After his nap we went down to spend Halloween with my parents. Joseph did a great job trick or treating. He picked it up so quickly and was absolutely adorable! Once he figured out that these houses would give him candy he took off, sometimes dragging mommy along with him or leaving his parents in the dust. I honestly thought he would go to about 5 houses and call it good, but nope! Joseph went to about 15 houses before it was getting too cold, and mommy made him go inside. Joseph can't say "Trick or Treat" yet so he would grab a handful of candy, put it in his bucket, and then shout "Bye!" as he ran to the next house. I have tried to attach a video so everyone can see my adorable toddler :)

He loved Grandma's candles

Digging through our candy

Running to the next house

He got the hang of it quick

More Joseph-isms

Here is more examples of my toddler being adorable!

1. Joseph saw the garbage truck pull up and them went sprinting for his books. He quickly found his truck book and opened to the garbage truck page. He got so excited! He pointed to the book and then to the truck outside. I love how my boy is making real world connections!

2. I put Joseph down for a nap and after a little while I assumed he fell asleep. It wasn't until I heard singing from his room that I knew I had been wrong.

3. Joseph LOVES to count. Our front office has 3 pumpkins in front, and Joseph would count them almost everyday. I guess one of the pumpkins was taken or went bad because on day there was only 2. Joseph counted the 2 that were there, and then began to search for the missing pumpkin. When he couldn't find it, he ran into the office and informed them of their missing pumpkin. And by informed I mean he pointed to the pumpkins saying a whole bunch of toddler jargon and then "pu-tin pu-tin pu-tin" followed by a whole bunch of more toddler jargon.

4. Joseph's pumpkin that he got from Goebert's Pumpkin Farm has been a good little pumpkin considering the amount of toddler abuse it has seen. One of the cutest things he has done was when he got down on his hands and knees and started to roll the pumpkin with his head. He rolled it all over the family room with mom and dad just laughing away.

5. Joseph has figured out that if he suddenly starts laughing.... everyone else will start laughing. So whenever he sees someone new, he will smile at them and then start laughing. If he really likes you then you just might get some kisses. He is over giving kisses on the cheek, nope you'll get one right on the mouth! This kind of presents a little problem at the park...

Hope you have enjoyed some of these  Joseph-isms!!

Fantastic Day

The past two days have been wonderful! Matt finished his school work early yesterday and got to spend some time with his son. Last night we went out to dinner with my parents at Nick's Pizza and Pub.  I haven't been there in years and it was good to have their wonderful pizza again. We also placed our 2nd Geocache, this one out near my parent's house.
This morning we had a few errands ( you know necessary things like food). Then this afternoon my parents got to spend the day with Joseph at Goebert's Pumpkin Farm, and Matt and I actually got to go on a date! Matt and I found 6 geocaches today, most of which were not quite toddler appropriate due to the high levels of bushwhacking. Then we went out for ice cream at Baskin Robins (everyone should try Trick Oreo Treat- its yummy). We walked around Petsmart and almost adopted an adorable black kitty named Shade. Then we went out to eat at At the Border. We had never eaten there before, but we are glad to have found a pretty good Mexican place in IL. We were pretty spoiled in Utah with lots of Mexican choices and we have missed it. It was a fun date :)
Grandma, Grandpa, and Joseph has a wonderful time at the Pumpkin Farm. Joseph showed them each and every pumpkin. He picked out a cute little pumpkin that comes equipped with the perfect toddler handle. He also had fun watching all of the horses and climbing on their toys. After 2 hours at the Pumpkin Farm it was finally dinner time (McDonald's of course) and then he ran around Woodfield Mall. Grandma and Grandpa did a wonderful job of tiring him out.

Fun Joseph-isms

Joseph is now getting older and being even MORE cute. Therefore, I thought I would share the cuteness.

Joseph came running up saying "poow poow poow" (pool). I told him it was too cold to go to the pool, so he ran off and brought back his jacket.

I asked him if he wanted to help with laundry. He ran over to the washing machine and then started to throw everything in there. Toys, blankets, blocks, shoes.... all in the washer in a matter of seconds.

Joseph has a shirt with Elmo on it. I asked him where Elmo was, and he ran over to the TV, pointing to the screen. (We watch Sesame Street everyday)

Hope you enjoyed these few Joseph-isms. More to come!!!

So Big!

Joseph is 19 months old today! How did he get so big?!?!?! I find myself puzzled, because my days seem so long and the weeks never ending. However, it seems like only last month I had this little tiny baby who could barely hold his head up! Now I have this adorable toddler who is so curious about the world. He lives to be outdoors (as long as he has his trusty stick) running around pointing out all the airplanes and trucks. It is soo exciting now that he is starting to really speak, saying words like "bauw" (ball), "poow poow" (pool), "szitty" (kitty), and "ump ump ump" (jump). If you ever want a good laugh... ask him what sound an elephant makes :) I find it hard to believe how cute my little boy is!

Newborn

6 months

1 year

19 months
This picture is funny because he went and grabbed the
diaper bag and headed for the door all by himself.

My Cute Little Boy!

Our New Toys

Joseph got a whole bunch of hand-me-down Fisher Price Little People today, and he LOVES them. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. They sure don't make toys like they used to. I think Joseph is the 5th kid to use these... and they are still in great condition!

Loading our plane

Hmm... where can I put this one?

I love the mail truck on top!

Cramming everyone into a tiny car... reminds me of high school

 

And then he squeezed a few more in!

Back to school

Well the summer is officially over here in the Divelbiss household. Matt ended his internships and headed back to school yesterday. Joseph and I are kind of sad that summer is over; it was nice to have daddy home by 5:30 every night! Matt got wonderful feedback from both of his internships, as well as an invitation to join them next summer if he wants. Starting school was interesting being that 2 of his law books had some sort of delay getting here, but the last one should arrive today. Matt is excited to be back in school because this year he gets to take some classes he is actually interested in!

Joseph is growing everyday. He has grown ANOTHER inch just in the last 3 weeks. He has a check-up in Sept so we can see all of his new stats :) He is also getting cuter, which I didn't think was possible. Its really hard to keep a stern face during time-outs (because I'm sure a laughing, smiling mommy sends the wrong message). Here are some pictures so everyone can see how big he is!

Matt teaching Joseph about Star Wars

Wearing Daddy's socks

Chasing the geese

While Matt and I were geocaching yesterday, Joseph got to chase some geese. I don't think they appreciated it so much...

A busy month

July has been a busy busy month. Since our last post we had a whopper of a storm that left almost everyone in the area without power. Thankfully we were one of the lucky ones that kept their power (and their AC). It was so sad to see trees down everywhere. Come to think of it, its been 10 days since the storm and there are still trees everywhere. On the 7th Matt and I attended our first Geocaching Event and had a good time :) We FINALLY got our carpets cleaned (believe me... they needed it). I was able to attend one of my best friend's baby shower.

Melissa and I at her shower

 And believe it or not, that takes us to the 9th! My grandparents came for a visit and we got to spend time with them. This past Thursday I got to spend the day with my sister at Six Flags. We had a great time and the park was even able to restore power to almost all of the rides (still leftover problems from the storm).

Aimee and I at Six Flags

Yesterday Matt and I went to go see Beauty and the Beast downtown. If we had endless moneys we would probably go and see every Broadway show in Chicago. I think I have been successful in turning my hubby into a complete Musical Theater lover!!! Other than that life has been filled with normal stuff... you know Matt working, Joseph running around with endless energy, and me trying to find some order to our chaotic lives. Here are some more pictures of my adorable son!

Sitting in our shopping cart

Best Bedhead Ever!!

Toddler Park

These past 6 weeks Matt and I have been geocaching. It has been a lot of fun and we have found all of these hole-in-the-wall parks. Today, we found a toddler park! It was the cutest thing. There was a big kid park and then next to it was this gated toddler park. The ground was this blue spongy turf (similar to the all weather tracks you find in high school stadiums) and everything was smaller, perfect for toddlers. This is the first park where Joseph could do everything himself. Here are lots of pictures!!!